South Africa??????? Say What????????

Who'd a thunk I would be going to South Africa? Not me, that's for sure! This trip is just one of those things that was meant to be; and now that we're going, I have to admit, I really am very excited about it!

Saturday night Bill and I went into Rapid City for the Pheasant's Forever annual membership meeting that was being held in conjunction with the Outdoor Show. The Outdoor Show was put on by South Dakota Youth Hunt Adventures this year (the club I am a hunting mentor in) so at the last minute we decided to go up to the auction (benefiting SDYHA) just to see what they had in it. I know you are already thinking that wine and bourbon was involved -but NO! There was none! The auction wasn't real big and they had the typical outdoor club items, a pistol, a shot gun, a rifle, an ivory necklace, a shooting bench built by one of the mentee's in the program, but also had an African Photo Safari and an African 5 Plains Animal Safari Hunt. Nothing (we thought) was going super undervalue, but nothing was getting stupid on prices either.

The Photo Safari was relatively early in the auction, (#5 - I think) and no one was bidding on it. Finally the auctioneer said if he couldn't get $500 for it, it might be better to move it back behind the hunt and just sell it later. The thinking being that people weren't spending money on the photo safari as they really wanted the hunt.

When the hunt came up, it was the same thing, no one was bidding, so I finally said yes to $3000. Yes, I know, you never want to be the first to throw your hand at an auction, but $3K for an African Safari??????? Three of us were in on the action, one person dropping out pretty quickly. I took the bid to $5000 and was at my comfort level as there were still trophy fees, dipping fees, transport fees, taxidermist fees, etc. etc. that would have been our responsibility. (Charlie, who we were just hog hunting with in Texas just got back from African Safari in Zimbabwe and was telling us about all the "extras" associated with his hunt so I had a pretty good idea where this was headed, and truth be known, I was in over my head at the $5K!) So when the hammer came down, the gentleman that bought the hunt got a 5 Plains Animal African Safari for himself and a non-hunting companion for $5250. That's a lot of money for a working stiff like us........that's a steel!!!!!!!!!!! When I told Charlie what the hunt went for, his words were ".......what????? My passport is ready to go and so is my gun! Why aren't we going Connie?!?!?!?" I told him I'd be sure to let him know if another came up for auction!

Next the African Photo Safari came up for auction (2nd time in the line up). I leaned over and told Bill, "I should have bought it when it was at $500!" He asked me if I was going to bid on it, I said why not? You have sky miles to burn! He laughed at me and said cool! Again, it was the same scenario.......no one was bidding on this trip. People were crazy not to! Yes, I know, you never want to be the first to throw your hand at an auction, but it was so cheap, so I was the first - no one else was bidding and I thought that maybe I could at least help drive the price up a little and get more money for the club. NO one bid against me! Bill didn't realize I was in and was about to throw his hand against me but I leaned over and said "I think you're going on Safari!" BEFORE he threw his hand. (BILL......I TOLD you I was going to bid....what were you thinkin'?????) So as the hammer was coming down at a ridiculously cheap amount the auctioneer looked at me and said "Ma'am, thank you for helping me out on the hunt. Now, I'm going to help you out.....I just sold the photo safari to you." Again, Africa in general let alone anywhere specific (South Africa) has never held any kind of fascination for me, but now that I'm going, I'm excited! Of course we had to make a few phone calls to tell people our (what we thought was) awesome news....but nobody would answer their phones so we could only leave messages! LOL

When we left the Show Saturday night, literally the only thing we knew about what we'd just bought was that we were going on Photo Safari in South Africa for 6 days. How crazy is that!?!?!?!?!?!? Sunday we'd already made plans to go back into the show with our neighbors (we didn't have time Saturday to look around at all) so while there we found the Safari Club International guy (that is who donated the trip) to try to find out a few details. Brian (SCI) had already been looking for his flyer on the trip and couldn't find it but did tell us the game preserve we are going to http://www.zulunyala.com/ . 

When we got home, of course the first thing we did was get on line and look this place up! I think it will be a great trip! We still don't know which property we will be going to, when we will be going, what the cut off is to make the trip or any other details, but at least now we know WHERE we are going! (Just another adventure in the life of Bill and Connie!)

Bill has been telling me to decide where I want to go so we can use all his sky miles up in one fell swoop....I think I found the spot! Delta fly's into Johannesburg with a direct flight from Atlanta. I checked the difference in charges if we drove to Minneapolis or Salt Lake, and it's actually a little more! Guess what? We'll be flying from Rapid City!

Again, now that I'm going to South Africa, I AM excited about it! So much for my trips to Hawaii, the Caribbean, Alaska, Australia or anywhere else cool.....but I'm going to get to see zebra's and lions and tigers and cape buffalo and elephants and, and, and, and! In person even! We've already decided that we are going to do as much as we can afford to do on this trip (after all, what are the chances of us ever doing it again??) and looking at trip advisor, the possibilities are endless!

Now, that camera that I've been putting off buying......well, I'm now seriously camera shopping. Any input will be greatly appreciated from anyone! Curt and Renan (friends from Pinedale) have already been to South Africa so were a wealth of information on the phone last night and have the information on what book we need to get for identifying all these animals we'll see that we'll have no clue what they are! Got to find a place for Casey to stay while we're gone. (Yes, I'll miss her, but not enough to NOT go!!!!!) Carolyn up the road has already told Bill that she will be inviting him over for dinner a few days before we are scheduled to leave and be sure to make him to sick to travel so she can just slide right in in his place! :) Need to get in touch with the guy that bought the trip 2 years ago and find out everything we can from him. A friend we met pheasant hunting opening weekend was at the auction and JUST got back from photo safari so we've already made plans to have dinner with he and his wife when Bill gets home from work to pick their brains.

Do you think it's time for me to get some additional details on this trip????? :) Did you hear???? I'm going to South Africa!!!!!